The irony is how much the viewing public would be watching this show considering the news that preceded this installment.

The last outing of Dollhouse was infuriating.  The show was such a hit and miss affair that it didn’t seem possible that it would continue.  It didn’t and around the time episode 4 aired, news came out that the show would go on hiatus for all of November.  Shortly thereafter it was announced that Fox had canceled the show, but would be letting it run out the course of its second season in its entirety, something that rarely happens.

This leads us into “The Public Eye.”  The LA Dollhouse is on shaky ground.  Sierra’s last engagement has likely scarred Topher and has left us wondering about what other evils may live in Boyd Langton’s mind.  But we see almost none of the residual trauma, we don’t even see Sierra.  Instead we’re treated to Senator Daniel Perrin and his wife Cindy shortly before a press conference in which ex-active Madeline Costley (November) gives a statement about her life as a Doll.  If you recall, she was recently visited by Adelle and gave the impression that the life of the idle rich suited her well.  Senator Perrin is using her to get to and bring down the Dollhouse and its parent corporation Rossum.

Rossum exec Matthew Harding chides Adelle for losing control of her house, and that she should do nothing to help correct the problems.  He says it’s been taken care of.  As the LA Dollhouse watches the press conference, Echo slips in and makes comments about Mr. and Mrs. Perrin and how Mrs. Perrin is not right, possibly a Doll from another house.  Topher builds a Doll zapper and tests it on a small active named Kilo.  (The joke is, she’s small like her name.  The lady playing Kilo is also one of the writers.)

Senator Perrin is going over numbers with someone on the phone when he passes out, drugged from the liquor he’s been drinking.  He awakes to find Echo (who was sent out without Paul Ballard) video taping him naked on the bed.  She’s playing the part of a hired hooker set there to ruin the Senator.  He leaves with her to go find his wife (kinky) who knows several neurologists.  She’s now evidence in his case.

Madeline and Cindy are at a safe house waiting to testify before congress.  Ballard finds Madeline (who he keeps calling Millie) and goes to zap her and Cindy with Topher’s toy.  Echo and Senator Perrin pull up in the driveway just as Ballard hits the button and Madeline, Echo and the Senator go down, but not Cindy.  The Senator is a Doll, and his wife is his handler.  Cindy’s bodyguards jump Paul.  Dennis and Echo get back in the car and run.  Ballard eventually escapes before being terminated, he heads to the airport to try and stop Madeline.  Dennis and Echo pull over and talk a bit about being Dolls before Cindy pulls up.  Echo and Cindy fight, Echo beats the stuffing out of her.  They flee again but Cindy uses the Doll Zapper™ to stop them.

Ballard is unsuccessful in talking Madeline into not testifying.  She’s free, she should be able to make mistakes.  Which is an odd thing to say, if you know it’s a mistake, why do it?  Echo and Dennis are taken to another Dollhouse where we meet Bennett Halverson (Summer Glau) and her assistant Grace (Jillian Armenante.)  Bennett’s arm is in a sling and she at first appears to be this Dollhouse’s Adelle, but as the unconscious Dennis and Echo are brought in, she starts drifting into a perfectly mental equivalent of Topher.  She’s apparently the administrator AND the techie.

Cindy shows up with the two Dolls and gives her the Doll Zapper.  Bennett recognizes it immediately as something Topher built.  She then goes to greet the Dolls.  Dennis protests but is put under for a treatment anyway.  Then she goes to Echo and calls her Caroline and says she knew she’d be back.  On goes the chair.

Other than the completely ridiculous notion that Madeline would purposefully make a choice she doesn’t believe in, or the fact that every character is becoming an active, “The Public Eye” held my interest and began showing signs of tragic life in the show.  Now it’s just a matter of playing it out.  We know (if you’ve seen Epitaph One) that the world goes to pot because of the Dollhouse(s) and so all we need is that John Conner/Skynet inception to link us to the doomed future that only the DVD buyers have seen.

If that last sentence wasn’t thoroughly depressing to you, you’re probably a fan of the show.  And it was a decent one this time.  Four out of five creepy doll heads.